Notes on Objects & Places from Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights Objects/Places

Thrushcross Grange: The Linton family home, four miles away, is very different from the Heights. It is more lavishly decorated, and the Linton family seems happy and loving. When Catherine marries Linton, her property, the Grange, is transferred to her husband. Then when he dies, it goes to Heathcliff, Linton’s father. A married woman’s property belonged to her husband and his family, even if the husband died. Therefore, Heathcliff became owner of the Heights, Catherine his dependent, and Mr. Lockwood was afforded the opportunity to rent the Grange.

Wuthering Heights: The family home of the Earnshaws since 1500. When Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley takes over and rules the house like a tyrant; when he goes mad, Heathcliff takes over and behaves just as badly. Heathcliff, desiring revenge against the Earnshaw’s, takes advantage of Hindley, who gambles away his family home. The Heights becomes the source of Heathcliff’s revenge, as he turns Hindley’s son, who would have been the master of the Heights, into an ignorant servant. Dark and dingy, the Heights is best suited for the hardened soul. After Mr. Earnshaw died, there was no place for a sensitive or delicate soul here; hence, Isabella and Linton have difficulty surviving at the Heights.

moors: A field of open infertile land. There are usually grasses but no trees, due to the strong winds that roll across the hills. They can also be wet wastelands full of peat, moss, and heath. They make up the area between and around Wuthering Heights and the Grange. Wuthering Heights received its name from the strong winds that blow across these barren hills. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff loved to play in the moors, and it also becomes a spot of silent, sorrowful wandering for Heathcliff after Catherine dies. The moors can be dangerous even for those who are familiar and a bad storm can make them nearly uncrossable.

Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First: The title of a book Mr. Lockwood reads at the Heights. It is on Catherine’s bookshelf, and it was probably a forced gift from Joseph. Mr. Lockwood dreams that the preacher of this sermon, Jabes Branderham, is at the nearby chapel, and he and Joseph are going to hear him. He believes that he, Joseph, or the preacher are guilty of the 'First of the Seventy-First.' The preacher goes on and on, for four hundred and ninety sins. To reach so high a number, he defines acts that Mr. Lockwood never imagined as sins. And when Mr. Lockwood accuses the preacher of being guilty of the last sin, the preacher turns the congregation against him. They start to attack Mr. Lockwood with their pilgrim sticks while the preacher beats the pulpit.

Liverpool: A port city in northwest England. During a business trip here, Mr. Earnshaw finds a dark-skinned, inarticulate boy wandering the streets. He cannot find any relatives, so he brings it home to Wuthering Heights. They name him Heathcliff. No one, even the boy, knows his ancestry or country of origin. Being that he was found in a port city, he could have come off a boat from a foreign country, making his history even more uncertain.

Gimmerton: The nearest town to the isolated Heights and Grange.

Penistone Craggs: A rock formation that can be seen from the Grange. Cathy wants to see it, but her father warns that it is too dangerous. When Cathy sneaks away to find the Craggs, she passes Wuthering Heights and is forced to enter when Hareton’s dogs attack her own.

the Fairy cave: A cave out on the moors, under Penistone Craggs. In her delirium, Catherine Earnshaw imagines that her sickbed is inside the cave, and that Nelly is planning to hurt her. Years later, when Catherine’s daughter hears about the Fairy cave, she is intrigued.

pilgrim sticks: Sticks carried by pilgrims, who are religious travelers. In Mr. Lockwood’s dream, Joseph has one but he does not. And when Mr. Lockwood stands up to the preacher, the parishioners start to attack him with their holy sticks.